Posted before Game 1 began:


And so it is...

Congrats, Yankees fans.

Condolences, Phillies fans.

Good to see it at least went to six games.

Best,

Geoff

27

Great game and series.

Was hoping Steinbrenner would fail to buy himself a championship again this year. Oh well. Congrats, New York All Stars.

Enjoyable series for sure. Excellent job by both the NY pitching staff and bats.

Congratulations to the Yankee fans!

dB

That's really what it is. What else do you call an infield of Mark Texiera, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez?

Well, good effort Philadelphia. They gave them more sport than the Angels certainly did, and this thing could have gone a couple different ways if not for a couple bad innings.

Good World Series!

congrats to the yanks. Phillies will be back, they have a young core and are a couple pitchers and a couple bench players away from winning it again.

Yeah, cause Boston's payroll is SO much smaller

OK, boys, saw this coming. Well, first of all, Bridog no Red Sox fan call foul with a straight face--to the rest of the league you're nothing more than Evil Empire East, please!

Secondly, they make the most money, they reinvest the most money in the team (not just players but in their scouting and infrastructure). YOUR owners are pocketing their share of the luxury tax penalty so maybe it is your local billionaire you should have beef with...

You guys cite the Yankee infield as evidence of a bought title, as if Howard, Utley and Rollins is not a solid gold infield, as if the Phillies didn't grab Ibanez and Lee this year just 'cause they could afford it) but please do note that the Yanks went to war this season and won a title with an outfield of Swisher, Cabrera, Damon and Brett Gardiner. Not even CLOSE to comparable to the Ibanez, Victorino and Werth.

Anyway, the bought title cries are as predictable as the sunrise. Fact is, this team was pretty cohesive this year, played like a team, got major contributions from the role players. With Cabrera, Cano, Hughes, Chamberlain in addition to Pettitte, Jeter, Rivera, and Posada, this team had quite a bit more homegrown talent than any since 2000.

And it was closer in spirit, too, to the great teams of the late '90s (who were NOT the highest paid team in baseball until Clemens came onboard--in fact in '98, the 112-win team wasn't even in the top 3) than any team the Yankees have had in the recent past.

I don't love the way they've run it the last decade--in fact I've hated certain signings--Big Unit, Abreu, A-Rod, Gimabi, Vasquez, Pavano...etc. And I hate the stupid idea that "you can't rebuild in New York," an idea that has crippled the New York Knicks beyond hope.

But watching Mo', Posada, Jeter, Pettitte and Matsui play such a big role in this win, well it brought a smile to my face, anyway.

My first Yankee hero was Bobby Murcer. They were brutal losers the first ten years of my passionate fanhood--6 to 16, what is derisively known as "The Horace Clark era." So I am NOT a Yankee fan raised on the expectation of unending success. Tradition, sure, always aware of that--it was all we had in 1971...

Hooray, Yankees, Money only puts the team in the field--and often times money buys reputation more than actual remaining talent. They still had to become a team and learn how to win together and perform, and they did. I ain't going boo hoo for all the other millionaires on the losing end.

Sorry you missed Mickey Mantle. I was too young to watch him during his best years; but even near the end, when I started watching, he was great.

Best,

Geoff

I thought it was great that Matsui pulled out a game for the ages and got the MVP. He's been nothing but a class act since coming here from Japan doing whatever he had to be a team player. He's one guy I'm glad to see get a ring.

That's 5 for Jeter, only 5 more to catch Yogi.

+1 and there's a better than average chance he won't be here next year

Start of 2009 season payrolls:

Yankees (highest payroll) = $201,449,189
Red Sox (4th highest payroll) = $121,745,999

The Yankees spend quite a bit more (65%) than the Red Sox, and over 2 times the average team payroll (88.3 million).

Hey, the Yankees can do what they want. There's no salary cap and it's a free country, but it's tough for most teams, and impossible for others, to compete with pockets that deep.

And yet compete they do, as a nine-year hiatus between championships attests.

Talent is a moving target and you can throw a lot of money into a last place team. You know who makes 20 mil of that figure you quote? Kei Igawa. It's the ability to eat their mistakes and still be active players in the market that differentiates the Yanks from the other big players like The Red Sox, Mets and Dodgers.

But again, the Yankees spend it 'cause they make it. Steinbrenner ain't reaching into his piggy bank for any of it. If you think the spending disparity is striking, you should see the revenue disparity.

Every team should have the wherewithal to keep its best players. So any salary cap should have a minimum, a pay to play bar, as well as a maximum. There is an embarrassment of lame ducks in MLB who lie legally about their profits as they collect millions from the Yankees in luxury taxes. No other sport would tolerate some of these owners. Balance has to go both ways.

For better of for worse, baseball is still a regional game, and how well you do in your market, not how well the league does nationally, determines your success and power.

Clearly no.

Sorry the Phillies couldn't hold on and force a game 7.

Lakers are without a center now, but that's for another thread...

That's the difference, though. The Yankees have the resources to throw as much money at the wall as they want to see what sticks. Other teams actually have to take their finances into consideration. The money will always be there for the Yankees. They've been far-and-away the most popular baseball team in the game since the 20s, and as they continue to acquire superstar after superstar, their marketability only increases. It's a never-ending loop.

You're right, they haven't won it all in 8 seasons. Sometimes the formula works and sometimes it doesn't, and there will always be other competitive teams on the scene. The difference is that every other team can only afford to be competitive in bursts, as their success comes from clever front office moves, good coaching, team chemistry, and a good bit of luck. They come, and they go. For instance, the Chicago Sox dominated in 2005 and won it all, but then failed to even make the playoffs in 3 of the past 4 seasons since. On the other hand, in the past 14 seasons going back to 95, the Yankees have been to the post-season every year except one, been to 7 World Series, and won it all 5 times. No other team comes anywhere close to that, and you can't tell me that their bottomless bank account doesn't play a HUGE role in that.

According to this website, the Yanks were 2nd (barely behind #1) in team payroll in 1998:
http://www.baseballchronology.com/Baseball/Years/1998/Payroll.asp
1 Baltimore Orioles $74,170,921
2 New York Yankees $73,963,698
3 Texas Rangers $62,755,368

and for every other year from 1996 through 2009, the Yankees were #1 in team payroll (according to the info at that web site).

I'm a Yankees fan and I am very happy the Yanks won again this year, and I agree the Yanks had a much better team chemistry this year than in a long time. But I feel bad that the revenue and payroll disparity is so large, and that teams like Royals and Pirates don't have a chance to compete. It's not good for the sport.

I agree with all of that and if you've seen my posts on the subject here over the years (in the NBA thread, oddly, 'cause this is the first year we've ever sustained a lively MLB thread) you'd know that I am largely an estranged Yankee fan because of their approach to team building, and the payroll disparity absolutely, unequivocally diminishes this achievement, in my eyes.

For me the saddest part is how it obscures the achievement of the '90s team, which was built very differently--by Stick Michael and Buck Showalter, while George was on the Howie Spira ban from baseball.

I'm in favor of a cap, but it'll never happen in baseball--player's union too strong, league office far too weak.

It somehow doesn't seem right that for 23 out of the other 29 teams in baseball, you could combine the payrolls of any two and not equal the Yankees'.

For instance, the Yankees' payroll is $201.4 million. Astros + Braves payrolls combined is $199.6m. Dodgers + Mariners combined is $199.3m. You can pick any two, often more, and it doesn't equal the Yankees' payroll. Hell, the Nationals, Pirates, Padres, and Marlins combined only equal a $189.4m payroll.

The Yankees hit the bullseye with that late-90s team. They still had the highest payroll in baseball, but by a pretty slim margin comparatively. It was just a smartly put-together team with great chemistry.

That may be why Steinbrenner has gone insane with spending since then. That team was like heroin, and now he's chasing the dragon, so to speak. Throwing money at the problem in an effort to get back to that same glory.

Although there were a few points during the season when I could swear I heard crickets chirping...

But yeah, this may be the first time that the MLB thread didn't get lost to neglect before the postseason! I remember during one season a few years ago, people started at least three different MLB threads because each one became so inactive that the person who started the next thread thought he was starting the first one of the season.

I'm glad we got a little more traffic this year. Maybe next year's thread will eclipse this one. Either way, it's been fun!

Best,

Geoff

You know what is funny about that? It was George being flat burned and used for leverage by the two biggest free agents of the era--Maddux and Bonds, who never had any intention of playing in the Bronx--that led to a team being built around the likes of O'Neil (straight up trade for Roberto Kelly), Brosius (scrap heap reclammation after a sub-Mendoza year in Oakland), and some low "key" free agent signings like Jimmy Key.

My final word on subject is that, while the Yankee payroll is absurd, is that it is too simplistic to refer to this as a "bought title." The money puts them in a position to be competitive every year, which in turn gives them a competitive advantage in the free agent market even when comparable money is on the table, but players still have to play and teams need to come together

Plus, any argument that frames the rest of the leagues owners and players as paupers, well that's pretty absurb too! A lot of the owners are tight wads who cook their books to make it look like they;re losing money and abuse the trust of their consitutencies by getting cities to build them new facilities and then failing to invest in putting a quality product on the field.

Baseball has myriad troubles. What the Yanks do is absurd, but what the Marlins do is every bit as damaging to league parity and integrity.

Again, give me a cap with a max and a min. Never happen, though.

Not just here.
I think one reason for the upswing is that people are starting to accept the fact there was a steroid era and what’s done is done. Fans have for the most part have thrown in the towel. Unless you can outright prove a player is cheating, we basically don’t give a s&it. Even then it’s not such a big deal anymore (A-rod, Manny). It’s only when a bonehead like Clemons insults us by swearing on his children or something along those lines that this stuff really bothers us.

We still have performing enhancing issues in the game and we’ll continue to have them. The nature of competitive sports (or cheating) has evolved into genetic /pharmaceutical/ biological engineering. Our advances in medicine and the health field will continue to be exploited in sports and I think we as fans are starting to accept it. One day a guy is going to throw a 110mph fastball to another guy that hits it 700 feet. We’ll all go “wow”.

For some reason reason, people don't seem to mind all the gigantic, 'roided-up He-Men in football, but put steroids in baseball and suddenly everyone's freaking out.

Amen. For example, love Bob Sanders when he's healthy, but when the positive test comes out, I won't be surprised in the least.

I've started next season's MLB thread here:

Official MLB 2010 Thread

Hope to see you there!

Best,

Geoff